“Javier’s appointment as CIO is an intentional commitment to accelerate the business application of IT capability, while strengthening our IT function,” David Taylor, chairman, CEO and president, said in a statement. Mr. Polit was most recently group CIO for Coke’s Bottling Investments Group and had been with Coca-Cola since 2003, according to his profile on LinkedIn.

Mr. Taylor praised Ms. Clement-Holmes in a memo to senior leaders, saying she “helped drive important change at a time when IT was emerging as a key business enabler and information security was surfacing as more enterprise-critical.” She had led IT since 2015.

Ms. Clement-Holmes, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment on her retirement and the company did not make Mr. Polit available for comment.

The hiring of an outsider to the top technology position is unusual for P&G. Ms. Clement-Holmes and her predecessor, Filippo Passerini, held various positions over many years with the company before being elevated to lead global IT.

In an interview with CIO Journal in January, Ms. Clement-Holmes noted that expanding Procter & Gamble’s use of emerging technologies, such as Internet of Things and mobile apps, has been among the recent IT priorities at the company. Procter & Gamble offers an Oral B toothbrush that links over Bluetooth with a mobile app, she said. The company might experiment with sensors embedded in diapers to send data to parents’ smartphones about babies’ wet skin or breathing rates, she said. When sensors drop in price and become durable in everyday consumer products, such ideas will become more viable, she said. “I do think there is huge opportunity for those kinds of things.”